| Home > Events > 2nd National Symposium > Edward M. Kennedy National Leadership in Confronting Bioterrorism
Senator Edward M. Kennedy DR. HAMBURG: Thank you very, very much, and we will now move into a slightly different mode. We had hoped and expected that Senator Kennedy would be with us in person. However, he was unexpectedly delayed in Boston and cannot actually be here. However, he is very disappointed that he can't be here in person and determined to find a way to join us in spirit and in voice. So he, as I understand it, is waiting on the phone at this very moment. So rather than keeping him waiting, I will be brief in my introduction, since he really does not deserve -- (Laughter.) -- or require, excuse me -- excuse me -- (Laughter.) He does not require introduction. (Laughter.) I'm going to have to do a lot of penance for that one. (Laughter.) DR. HAMBURG: In any case, as you all know, Senator Kennedy has served in the United States Senate for 38 years and is now the third most senior member of the Senate. He is the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate, and serves in many other key leadership positions. He has been a long-standing friend to public health, medicine, and science. Through his leadership on the Kennedy-Frist Public Health Emergency Act, he has accomplished something truly unprecedented, both -- he was able to get a bill passed in recent Congress, but also he has really defined a set of critical issues, including bioterrorism, as public health concerns, and has given us new authority to move forward in critical directions. So let me ask Senator Kennedy to speak to us now. Senator Kennedy? I hope I didn't offend him. (Laughter.) SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you, Peg, for that most recent introduction. (Laughter.) No. Seriously, I thank you very much for your kind remarks. Peg mentioned that I've been in the Senate for some 38 years. When I first ran for the Senate 38 years ago, I said that what the Senate needed was a young person with new ideas and idealism. And in this campaign that just ended a few weeks ago, I said in Massachusetts that what we needed in the United States Senate is now age and experience and wisdom and judgment. (Laughter.) And in any event, I'm delighted to have a chance to address the distinguished audience on this subject of such great importance to the nation. I regret very much I can't be with you in person today. I had planned to be. Plans changed at the last minute. But I'm very grateful for at least the opportunity speak with you on this extremely important issue and one which I think we in the Congress can benefit as a result of, in these past few days, consideration by so many of you on these excellent panels that I've watched and which I know have been invaluable. I want to thank the Hopkins Center for all of the support and wise advice that they've been giving to all of us in Congress in our work on the important issue on bioterrorism. It has been said that biological weapons are the poor person's atomic bomb. Like the lethal mushroom cloud of a nuclear weapon, a haze of anthrax spores released by a terrorist over one of our major cities could bring death and disease to millions of Americans, and we must defend our country against biological weapons as vigorously as we defend it against other threats to our national security. So I commend all of the participants in the conference for your impressive leadership in seeking to improve the nation's defenses against bioterrorism. Almost two years ago, Senator Frist and I began a process of consulting with experts in medicine and counterterrorism and biomedical science and public health to determine what measures were needed to improve the nation's response to the threat of bioterrorism. And time and again we were told that the best way to defend the nation against biological weapons is to strengthen the public health agencies at the local, state, and national levels, and we are indebted to many of you that are here today for the expert advice and the recommendations you gave us during this process of consultation. And the result of the extensive public outreach to so many of you was our Public Health Threats and Emergency Act, which Senator Frist and I introduced in the Senate just last June. Congress approved this important legislation as part of a package of public health bills, and President Clinton signed it into law earlier this month. And I'm very hopeful that the Act will begin to give the nation's dedicated medical and public health professionals the additional support they need for effective defenses against bioterrorism. Biological weapon is the ultimate in stealth technology. In a bioterrorist attack, there may be no sudden explosion or flash of light to announce that a terrorist attack has taken place. Instead, a bioterrorist attack could announce itself slowly and quietly when patients begin to arrive at hospitals and clinics with symptoms as seemingly innocuous as mild fever or headaches or muscle pains. And in the wake of a bioterrorist attack, the medical professionals will have to act quickly to recognize the signs and symptoms of exposure to a biological weapon, and hospitals and public health laboratories will need to identify the pathogens used in the attack. And public health agencies must monitor the disease outbreak and mobilize the medical resources to contain it, and the special skills of federal health agencies must be ready to supplement the state and local efforts. And instead of the seamless web that is needed to combat the bioterrorism, Senator Frist and I found that -- with your help -- that the nation's public health network has gaping holes. And many public health agencies are underfunded, ill equipped, poorly prepared to respond to bioterrorist attacks or other modern disease threats.
And in this electronic era when we can send an e-mail message from Capetown to Cape Cod in the blink of an eye, the nation's public health agencies often lack equipment as basic as a fax machine. So at a time when scientists have deciphered the entire DNA sequence of the human genetic code, many of the nation's public health laboratories can conduct simple genetic tests to identify the deadly microbes rapidly and accurately, yet in a disease emergency swift action can keep a local outbreak from becoming a national epidemic. A few lost hours can mean thousands more lost lives. So the recently enacted legislation takes important steps to correct these grave deficiencies. It authorizes grants for the public health agencies to improve their capacity, to combat infectious disease outbreaks, and these grants can be used to improve communications equipment, upgrade laboratory facilities, train public health professionals in recognizing the characteristics of a disease outbreak. And advance planning will be of the utmost importance in coping with the unique burdens that a bioterrorist attack could place on the health care system, yet hospitals and public health agencies are already stretched to the breaking point by cutbacks in their budgets and increases in their workload. And the grants authorized by the Act will provide the resources they need to plan for disease emergencies. Today, few doctors and nurses have the training to recognize the symptoms of the infectious microbes likely to be used in a bioterrorist attack, and few hospitals have the supplies necessary to counteract them. And the recent studies showed that 87 percent of the hospitals had an inadequate supply of the medications needed in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other infectious disease emergency. More than 90 percent of the doctors in some hospitals have received no training in recognizing the symptoms of exposure to a biological weapon, and over 60 percent did not even know where to report such symptoms if they were detected. So under our legislation, the grants to the hospitals and clinics will help train the health professionals in recognizing the symptoms of an attack and to help hospitals upgrade their capacity to treat the patients with contagious diseases. And since a bioterrorist attack will have national consequences, we must also make certain that national resources can be mobilized rapidly and efficiently to combat it. And current responsibility for bioterrorism preparedness is spread over a multitude of different federal agencies with different skills and responsibilities. The Act will improve the coordination of federal efforts by bringing together the agencies with critical responsibilities for preparedness. And, in particular, the Act will ensure the voice of the medical and public health professional is heard whenever bioterrorism preparedness is discussed, so that planning for any attack will be guided by a thorough understanding of the characteristics of infectious disease outbreak. So the centers for the disease control and prevention have a vital role in the effort. The CDC's laboratories and other facilities are in an alarming state of disrepair. The ceilings leak and walls are crumbling, and some of the world's most dangerous microbes are kept in buildings with less security than a county courthouse. We can't expect CDC to provide the first-class results if we continue to provide only third-class facilities. So the Act authorizes the extensive modernization and security upgrade for the CDC laboratories, so that scientists can work in secure facilities with state-of-the-art equipment. We must also use the nation's expertise in biomedical research to develop new medications and vaccines against the biological weapons. Massachusetts is a leader in this effort. The nation's stockpiles of small pox vaccines are old and may be ineffective, so a company in Cambridge is developing a new and safer vaccine. And another Massachusetts company is designing new forms of protective clothing for those who work in areas contaminated by contagious microbes. Projects such as these will be supported by the research initiatives that are part of the new Act, and this research will give health care professionals the tools they need to fight the disease threats of today and of the future. So the legislation will also I believe pay dividends apart from defending against bioterrorism by improving the nation's response to infectious disease outbreaks of all types. Few experts doubt that the nation will eventually face an outbreak of a deadly infectious disease. AIDS and malaria and tuberculosis killed millions of people around the world, and these diseases spread further day by day. And other deadly diseases, such as the ebola virus, and the Rift Valley Fever, are only an airplane ride away from our shores. And so diseases need not carry exotic names to endanger the nation's health. And the simple food-borne infections are rapidly becoming resistant to the drugs doctors have used to treat them for decades. Medical professionals in the United States have already seen patients infected with the so-called superbugs that resist every drug in the doctor's arsenal. And the new Act will increase the support for the federal, state, and local initiatives to contain the spread of microbe resistance to antibiotics. The Clinton administration is an important partner in this effort, and the FDA's recent decision to withdraw approval for certain antibiotics in agriculture will do a great deal to reduce the excessive use of these indispensable drugs in food production. And I commend the administration for this timely action to protect the public health. So even as we celebrate the passage of the Act, we realize that we have won only part of the battle. The challenge ahead is to make sure the programs authorized in the Act receive the full funding. So with your support I'm sure we can meet this challenge, make certain that Congress sustains its commitment to public health, and with your continued skill and dedication we can make sure that the programs initiated by the Act result in a safer and more secure nation for us all now and for many years to come. So thank you very much for your strong support, for all you've done so well, and for the excellent recommendations that have been made over the past days in the panels to date. Thank you very much. (Applause.) | 
